Lenai Carraway held out an angel-shaped Christmas card in the back parking lot of Crossroads Christian Church in Corona on a recent Wednesday afternoon. The day was warm and Carraway was beat.

The card said it all.

A note on it read: "Your dad loves you."

It was from an Inland area inmate to his 11-year-old daughter. He wanted her to have a bead kit for a necklace as a Christmas present.

Carraway is responsible for getting the gift - and about 300 more - to the children of inmates throughout the Inland Empire.

She is spreading Christmas cheer in some of the darkest places: local prisons.

The 55-year-old Corona resident has overseen the Angel Tree ministry at Crossroads during the last four years.

A program of Prison Fellowship Ministries - founded by by the late Chuck Colson, the first Nixon Administration member to serve time for the Watergate scandal - Angel Tree delivers presents to children on behalf of their parents, who are locked behind bars.

"Sometimes this is the only gift they can give their kids, so it's very important to them," Carraway said. "Sometimes a lot of these families don't have anything to give."

Carraway does. Mainly, her time. And a bright smile that compliments a strong but quiet spirit. Angel Tree ramps up in June, when Carraway and group of volunteers recruit inmates for the program.

Gifts can be shipped all over the country, but the ministry also hosts local children of inmates at a party where they receive their presents.

"Oh wow, it's just been amazing," Carraway said of the parties. "Four years ago we had this guy named Angel. His father signed him up. He brought his family to the party. His face lit up when he got his present from his dad. He brought his family to church the next week."

Angel's dad eventually was released from prison. He attends church now too.

"So there's been some amazing stories and lives have changed from Angel Tree," Carraway said.

Volunteers on her team said even the most hardened criminals melt with excitement when they arrive in prison to take names for the outreach, even calling to each other on the yard to announce that Angel Tree members have arrived.

"This is one event they all look forward to," said Pattie Scarce, a longtime Angel Tree coordinator.

Scarce said Angel Tree provides a gift guide to inmates. It's a big deal in the prison world, where inmates don't get many choices in life.

"They normally don't have the freedom to choose," she said. "This lights up their year."

And many inmates don't have contact with family at all. Visits don't happen. Letters and phone calls go unanswered. Angel Tree provides a once-a-year touch of home.

For those kids who cannot attend the local Angel Tree party, volunteers personally deliver the presents. It's another way the ministry reaches out to those most innocent victims of crime - the children.

"When they go out to deliver, they can minister to the families and talk to them about Jesus," Carraway said.